TRAUMATIC EPILEPSY AFTER CLOSED HEAD INJURIES

Abstract

The incidence of traumatic early and late epilepsy was studied in a thousand consecutive cases of closed head injury. Early epilepsy was more frequent in toe following cases: (1) those experiencing post-traumatic amnesia for more than 24 hours; (2) those with a depressed fracture; and (3) those with intracranial hematoma. A much greater incidence of late epilepsy was attributed to intracranial hematoma than toe other factors. The highest rate of late epilepsy occurred in cases where both prolonged amnesia and depressed fracture were present. This study lends support to other studies which divided the onset of traumatic epilepsy into a primary phase (first three weeks) due to toe immediate effects of the injury; a reactionary phase (3-18 months), related to the recovery of damaged cells; and a secondary phase (more than two years after injury,) associated with cerebral scars.